1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding apparatus of a cooling module for a vehicle, which allows the cooling module to slide rearwards when impact force is transferred to the cooling module (a radiator or a condenser) mounted to the front portion of the vehicle, thus preventing the cooling module from being damaged.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, module systems which combine several parts into one unit package have gradually been increasing in number so as to reduce the number of assembling processes when a vehicle is manufactured, thus reducing manufacturing costs and a manufacturing defective ratio. Thereby, a front bumper, a radiator and an air-conditioning condenser (a cooling module), and a head lamp are mounted to a front end module (FEM) in the form of a package.
FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a conventional cooling module mounted to a front end module, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view illustrating the important parts of a conventional sliding structure of the cooling module, and FIG. 3 is an operation view illustrating the state in which the cooling module slides when impact force acts on the conventional cooling module.
First, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional cooling module 10 for a vehicle, such as a radiator or a condenser, is mounted to the front end module 30 via a mounting bracket 20. A bumper back beam 1 is placed in front of the front end module 30 so that a bumper is installed to the bumper back beam 1.
Here, if the cooling module 10 is completely fixed to the front end module 30, the cooling module 10 may be damaged when impact force acts on the cooling module 10. Thus, when the impact force is transferred, the cooling module 10 slides in the transferred direction of the impact force (generally, the rear portion of the vehicle), so that the damage to the cooling module 10 is prevented.
As shown in FIG. 2, the sliding structure for the cooling module 10 includes a slide slot 21 which is formed in the mounting bracket 20 in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. A bushing 11 extending from the cooling module 10 is fitted into the slide slot 21.
The bushing 11 is an elastic member which is elastically deformable. In the state where the bushing 11 is fitted into the slide slot 21 as shown in FIG. 2, the lower surface of the bushing 11 is in close contact with the upper surface of the mounting bracket 20. FIG. 2 shows a normal state before impact force is transferred to the cooling module 10.
When impact force is transferred to the cooling module 10 in the normal state of FIG. 2, the bushing 11 extending from the cooling module 10 moves to the rear portion of a vehicle body along the slide slot 21, so that the state of FIG. 3 is obtained. At this time, since the impact force transferred to the cooling module 10 is larger than frictional force between the bushing 11 and the mounting bracket 20, the bushing 11 slides rearwards.
As such, when the cooling module 10 is subjected to the impact force, the cooling module 10 slides rearwards, so that the damage to the cooling module 10 is prevented or minimized.
However, the conventional sliding structure for the cooling module 10 is problematic in that the cooling module 10 is supported only by the frictional force between the bushing 11 and the mounting bracket 20 in the normal state where impact force does not act on the cooling module 10, so that vibration and noise may be generated due to the cooling module 10 being weakly mounted, and the cooling module 10 may undesirably slide rearwards when the vehicle starts suddenly.
The problems become more serious when the bushing 11 hardens because of deterioration of the bushing 11. Actually, owners having older vehicles complain about the vibration and noise which are generated in the bushing 11 of the cooling module 10, so that there is a pressing need for overcoming the problem of the vibration and noise.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.